Freedom’s Burden

The true burden of freedom is the obligation to summon up the courage to conquer fear.

A bill co-sponsored by US Senators Joseph Lieberman and Scott Brown calling for suspected terrorists to be stripped of their US citizenship is one of the worst ideas I have heard in quite a while. It is unconstitutional and I suspect that what it’s really about taking away due process.

I also think that fear is playing a part here, the kind that can eat away at the heart of a democracy. So the larger question concerns the way in which democratic governments should protect individual freedoms as they respond to the continuing terrorist threats.

Here is an opinion I found at the Washington Post by Ramdas Lamb, a former Hindu monk and current Profession at the University of Hawaii. The piece does not deal with the Lieberman-Brown bill directly however there is some correspondence. One of the points he makes is that reacting with intolerance, we allow ourselves to be intimidated. I appreciated the point of view. Perhaps you will too.